hogs·head

(hôgz′hĕd′, hŏgz′-)

1. Abbr. hhd Any of various units of volume or capacity ranging from 63 to 140 gallons (238 to 530 liters), especially a unit of capacity used in liquid measure in the United States equal to 63 gallons (238 liters).

2. A large barrel or cask with this capacity.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

hogshead

(ˈhɒɡzˌhɛd)

1. (Units) a unit of capacity, used esp for alcoholic beverages. It has several values, being 54 imperial gallons in the case of beer and 52.5 imperial gallons in the case of wine

2. (Brewing) a large cask used for shipment of wines and spirits

[C14: of obscure origin]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

hogs•head

(ˈhɔgzˌhɛd, ˈhɒgz-)

n.

1. a large cask, esp. one containing from 63 to 140 gallons (238 to 530 liters).

2. any of various units of liquid measure, esp. one equivalent to 63 gallons (238 liters). Abbr.: hhd

[1350–1400]

Hogshead

1. A unit of liquid capacity equal to two thiry-one-and-a-half-gallon barrels.

2. A large barrel of sixty-three-gallon capacity.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	hogshead - a British unit of capacity for alcoholic beverages British capacity unit, Imperial capacity unit - a unit of measure for capacity officially adopted in the British Imperial System; British units are both dry and wet bbl, barrel - any of various units of capacity; "a barrel of beer is 31 gallons and a barrel of oil is 42 gallons"
	2.	hogshead - a large cask especially one holding 63 gals barrel, cask - a cylindrical container that holds liquids

Translations

barilotto botte misura per liquidi

hogshead

[ˈhɒgzhed] N medida de capacidad esp del vino (= 52,5 galones, aprox. 225 litros) → pipa f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

hogshead

n → großes Fass; (= measure) → Oxhoft nt (obs), Flüssigkeitsmaß zwischen 200-250 l

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Near the fire was a hogshead, and on the hogshead a beggar.

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At every man's elbow stood his leathern blackjack of beer, while at the further end a hogshead with its end knocked in promised an abundant supply for the future.

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I've the sort of mouth for that --the hogshead mouth.

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But that which comforted me more still, was, that last of all, after I had made five or six such voyages as these, and thought I had nothing more to expect from the ship that was worth my meddling with - I say, after all this, I found a great hogshead of bread, three large runlets of rum, or spirits, a box of sugar, and a barrel of fine flour; this was surprising to me, because I had given over expecting any more provisions, except what was spoiled by the water.

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Why, it was like reading about France and the French, before the ever memor- able and blessed Revolution, which swept a thousand years of such villany away in one swift tidal-wave of blood -- one: a settlement of that hoary debt in the proportion of half a drop of blood for each hogshead of it that had been pressed by slow tortures out of that people in the weary stretch of ten centuries of wrong and shame and misery the like of which was not to be mated but in hell.

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A strapping, ruddy girl was beating flax or some such stuff in a little bit of a good-box of a barn, and she swung her flail with a will--if it was a flail; I was not farmer enough to know what she was at; a frowsy, barelegged girl was herding half a dozen geese with a stick--driving them along the lane and keeping them out of the dwellings; a cooper was at work in a shop which I know he did not make so large a thing as a hogshead in, for there was not room.

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They found by my eating that a small quantity would not suffice me; and being a most ingenious people, they slung up, with great dexterity, one of their largest hogsheads, then rolled it towards my hand, and beat out the top; I drank it off at a draught, which I might well do, for it did not hold half a pint, and tasted like a small wine of Burgundy, but much more delicious.

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They found by my eating, that a small quantity would not suffice me; and being a most ingenious people, they slung up with great dexterity one of their largest hogsheads, then rolled it towards my hand, and beat out the top; I drank it off at a draught, which I might well do, for it did not hold half a pint, and tasted like a small wine of Burgundy, but much more delicious.

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One night as I sat, half stupified, in a den of more than infamy, my attention was suddenly drawn to some black object, reposing upon the head of one of the immense hogsheads of Gin, or of Rum, which constituted the chief furniture of the apartment.

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Even Finn the Red-Handed was dreaming of his doorsteps and empty hogsheads. But they were all ashamed of their weakness, and none was brave enough to speak his thought.

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In it, in bewildering confusion, were old sleighs, pungs, horse rakes, hogsheads, settees without backs, bed- steads without heads, in all stages of disability, and never the same on two consecutive days.

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Why Love should like a spiteful foe Thus use him, he hath no idea, But hogsheads full- this doth he know- Don Quixote's tears are on the flow, And all for distant Dulcinea Del Toboso.

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